Difficult week for leaders Gloucester

Gloucester boss Nigel Melville today put a brave face on prop Patrice Collazo’s shock departure to Toulouse after his unbeaten league leaders went four points clear of the Zurich Premiership pack.

France international Collazo, who is believed to have been involved in a pay dispute with the west country club, signed a three-year contract before Friday’s Heineken Cup registration deadline.

Gloucester have indicated that they could trim their squad, possibly letting a handful of fringe first-team players move elsewhere, but Collazo’s exit raised many eyebrows.

“It has been a difficult week,” said Melville after watching Gloucester destroy Premiership basement boys Bristol Shoguns 45-18.

“You are always disappointed to lose a player, but a business decision was taken. An offer came in for him to go, and it was accepted.

“It is unsettling, of course it is, but we’ve got a team to prepare, and the people who run the club have got a business to run.”

While Collazo bade farewell to Kingsholm, Gloucester witnessed the stunning arrival of another star – 19-year-old local product Marcel Garvey.

Garvey, who has clocked 10.7 seconds for 100 metres, blitzed Bristol through a try hat-trick that left Melville hailing him as “a special talent”.

His first and third touchdowns were spectacular solo efforts, both from around the halfway line when he shredded Bristol’s defence through a breathtaking combination of pace, side-stepping trickery and sheer audacity.

“Marcel has got incredible pace, but he is also very, very strong. When you combine that with his step and balance, then he can move forward with incredible power,” Melville added.

“I am just glad that he is wearing a Gloucester shirt.”

Gloucester added further tries from Ludovic Mercier, Junior Paramore and Jake Boer, leaving Bristol to reflect on four successive defeats and a massive 164 points conceded.

Their cause was hindered by first-half injuries to skipper Ross Beattie and new signing Daryl Gibson, whose debut lasted just 20 minutes before he departed in what Shoguns coach Peter Thorburn termed a “dazed” state.

“We didn’t play well enough to win, although we were in the game for 65 minutes. It’s a case of going back to the drawing board, if it’s still there,” Thorburn said.

“Gloucester are such a technically sound side, with quality players who can turn errors into points, but to lose players like Ross Beattie and Daryl Gibson so early in the game obviously affected us.”

Leicester, who visit Bristol next Sunday, collected a second successive five-point maximum at Welford Road by demolishing Newcastle 52-9.

Tigers full-back Tim Stimpson equalled the Premiership individual record of 32 points in a match, while Rod Kafer, Neil Back, Ollie Smith and Graham Rowntree scored tries as Leicester recovered impressively from last week’s away defeat against Sale.

Leicester were without the injured Austin Healey, but youngster Sam Vesty stepped in and took his chance superbly to direct operations from fly-half.

“I said that I was looking at the position (fly-half) very, very closely. I didn’t say I was looking to sign somebody, but we gave Sam the opportunity, and he took it,” said Tigers rugby director Dean Richards.

Falcons boss Rob Andrew, meanwhile, offered no excuses for Newcastle’s third-successive defeat after an opening-weekend victory over Wasps.

“We were almost in awe of Leicester. We let them have the ball, and then watched them play with it,” he said.

Newcastle slipped to 11th place, courtesy of Harlequins’ first win, a 29-19 success against London Irish at The Stoop.

Quins, despite being without Keith Wood and Will Greenwood, triumphed through tries by Matt Moore, Ben Gollings and Nick Greenstock, leaving Irish to reflect on a third defeat from four starts.

“I thought that we played with a lot of spirit, heart and passion,” said Quins coach Mark Evans.

“Bits of our defence weren’t particularly good, but London Irish didn’t exploit that.”

Exiles rugby director Conor O’Shea was left fuming following a below-par display just six days after Irish had swamped Saracens 32-10.

“We were rubbish,” he said. “You cannot go from one extreme to the other, in terms of performance, like we’ve done recently – it is not acceptable.”

Northampton remained in the top three by brushing aside Franklin’s Gardens visitors Bath 24-3, claiming a bonus point after Peter Jorgensen (2), Ben Cohen and Oriol Ripol collected tries.

In stark contrast, Bath have scored just two tries in four games, which is hardly an encouraging statistic ahead of next Saturday’s Recreation Ground appointment with Gloucester.